Season Preview: Best Case Scenario

Larry Bird locks Jamaal Tinsely in the film room forcing him to watch Braveheart, Hoosiers, Miracle, and Rudy on a continuous loop for 24 hours. Tins emerges with fire in his eyes and ends up playing 82 games without any complaints about nagging injuries. He leads the league in assists, running the show as JO and Al mesh in the front court driving opposing teams crazy with their inside/outside game.

Danny Granger's game evolves into a reincarnation of a mid-90s Scottie Pippen. He shuts down other team's number one option, whether that be a guard or power forward, then runs the floor and pours in points as they fall to him in the flow of the game.

David Harrison show signs of maturity and confidence while beginning to dominate other big men in the East that don't play in Miami. His play allows Carlisle to mix and match player rotations to counter anything opposing teams throw at him.

Sarunas Jasikevicius has Maccabi Tel Aviv flashbacks while running the second unit with his old teammate Maceo Baston. His assist to turnover ration jumps to 3 to 1 while draining 48 percent of his shot from behind the arc. He becomes an indispensable role player and late game shooting threat.

Stephen Jackson is T-boned while driving to the Fieldhouse for the last practice prior to the regular season causing him to miss the start of practice. It will be his last transgression of team rules for the rest of the year. The man who drove into Jack turns out to be a local minister who convinces Jack that the wreck was no accident, but that God brought them together for a reason. After surviving another brush with death unscathed, Jack is overwhelmed by the preacher's words and begins bi-weekly bible study sessions. A God-fearing Jack has no trepidations about taking it to the rack, so instead of settling for outside shots his scoring increases with easy buckets and trips to the charity stripe. Fitting in nicely with Al and JO, Jack wins over fans game after game with his scoring and defensive effort.

After surprising every media expert by winning the Central with a 62-20 record, the #2 seeded Pacers beat the Heat in 6 to earn a birth in the NBA Finals. Since this is the best case scenario, you know the Pacers go on to pound the Phoenix Suns in 5 games to capture their first NBA championship.

It could happen...